It also goes a long way to explaining why I’ve never had good experiences for the few agencies I’ve worked for, lol.

Making the case for MVP’s that we can release iteratively, has drawn the blank stares from everyone involved. The team usually doesn’t know any better either, because most of them are grads and/or people who have only worked for agencies. So I’m usually the lone crusader on a lean agile approach, which has burnt me out more than once.

I would say that this is half of the problem though. I noticed you used the word wireframes in a negative context, but they can go a long way in avoiding UX redesigns after you’ve demoed. This happens because an agency wants to save time and cut as many corners as possible, because they’ve underquoted in the hope of “winning the bid war” and long term business. The other end of the stick.

So while I agree with the premise that the app agency model is broken, you haven’t solved the whole problem — how to avoid team burnout from underquoting on a feature bloated waterfall project.